Apple Australia slashes app prices by up to 25%

Asher Moses

Prices on Apple's iTunes App Store in Australia have been slashed to take into account the recent surge in the Australian dollar.

Apple Australia confirmed today that for Australia and some other countries, pricing on apps - but not music, books or movies - had been adjusted "due to changes in foreign exchange rates and local tax laws".

Federal Labor MP Ed Husic, who has criticised Apple in Parliament for charging Australians more than those in the US, congratulated the company on the price drops in a phone interview with this website today.

Most of the pricing tiers for apps appear to have been reduced by up to 25 per cent, making them more in line with the US store.

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For instance, the lowest pricing tier, which was $1.19, has been slashed by 17 per cent to $0.99, while the tier 3 price is $2.99 after a 25 per cent reduction.

Up until tier 3 prices are now identical to the US, although above this level prices are still about $0.50 more than in the US. But Australian prices, unlike the US, include GST.

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It comes after Apple has attracted criticism for selling its products at inflated prices in Australia compared with the US. This became more pronounced as the value of the Australian dollar climbed above parity with the US dollar.

He says Apple told him its Australian managing director Tony King would contact him next week to address his concerns.

"I've been surprised by the strength of the response from the public," Mr Husic said in a phone interview today.

He said he would ask Mr King to follow up on the App Store price changes with changes to the prices of its hardware.

"Congrats to them for starting to be responsive on this issue and let's see what else happens with some of their other prices," he said.

It is not clear how much of an effect Mr Husic's speech in Parliament had on today's price changes as other international store prices were also changed, not just Australia's.

Mat Peterson, who sells several apps through his Sydney firm, The Little App Factory, said the changes allowed Australians to "receive the price parity they deserve".

"In actual fact, we have a better deal than the US as the 99c app price includes GST. Without GST, we would be approximately 90c, which is obviously 10 per cent below the US when our exchange rate is only 7 per cent above them," he said.

His latest app, Tagalicious, which promises to clean up users' music collections, was hit with an automatic price change overnight, from $12.99 to $9.99.

Mr Peterson pointed out that music and movie prices were still much higher on the Australian store than in the US, although Apple's hands are somewhat tied here as prices are believed to be set by the industry.

"As an example, Maroon 5s Move like Jagger is $1.29 in the US but $2.19 in Australia, which is stupidly high. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is $9.99 in the US but $12.99 in Australia," he said.

Anthony Agius, founder of the Australian Apple community site MacTalk, said the app price changes would "make people happy, as many have complained about it for the past few months".

Matthew Powell, editor of MacTheMag.com, said he did not believe it was fair to single Apple out for the "Australia tax", saying Sony and Dell charged Australians significantly more than Americans for their products.

Apple is widely rumoured to be refreshing its Mac Mini, MacBook and MacBook Air models tomorrow, alongside the release of its latest operating system, Mac OS X Lion. All eyes will be on the prices to see if they align with the US.